The techniques existing to date for performance of cutaneous detachment for plastic surgery of the face use mostly scissors and/or scalpel, and in some cases, cannulas (material used for liposuction—thin cannula) in order to initially facilitate the displacement whereupon the procedure is continued using the scissors.
In the case of the scalpel and/or scissors there occurs a great amount of bleeding, and there is needed exhaustive cauterization of the detached area. In the case of the cannula there also occurs a significant amount of bleeding, requiring meticulous cauterization along the entire detached area, in addition to the risk imposed by the cannula, which due to being hollow, withdraws fat from the subcutaneous tissue of the face, and might cause the creation of depressed regions.
These existing processes for detachment of the facial skin during facelift surgery always entail the following risks: 1) hemorrhages during the surgical procedure, 2) formation of hematoma upon cutaneous closure, with the patient still in the surgery room, forcing the surgeon to reopen and cure the bleeding vessels, 3) formation of hematoma with the patient already in bed after surgery, forcing the entire team to return to the hospital, in order to perform a new surgical procedure on the patient with new cauterizations, with an electric scalpel and/or thread ligatures, 4) as known, upon exiting the parotid gland, the branches of the facial nerve (7th cranial pair), the nerve responsible for the face mobility, become superficial, whereby the cauterizations performed on the subcutaneous tissue might damage these nerve ends, and where the same damage might arise from the use of the scalpel or the scissors (sectioning). It is not rare that, with the use of the cited procedures, the patient develops a pull of the lip to one side due to injury of branches of the facial nerve, such injury being reverted in a few weeks in the majority of cases, however causing a great amount of discomfort to the surgical team and especially to the patient, 5) complications of the hematomas: the hematomas (formed by use of techniques based on scalpel or scissors), depending on their volume (sometimes quite large and deforming the face of the patient), as well as depending on the time from formation thereof until being attended to, might cause a significant amount of damage to the skin of the face, such as extensive cutaneous necrosis and also injuries of branches of the facial nerve due to compression.
If the formed hematoma also reaches the neck and is not drained in a short period of time, the whole skin of the face and neck will be infiltrated (purple), with a risk of necrosis, and the least consequence of this fact will be that the patient will spend several weeks treating the ecchymoses (purple blotches) and the facial and cervical (neck) edema.
All plastic surgeons consider the hematoma and injuries to the facial nerve to be the most serious factors of complication associated with facelift surgery (plastic surgery of the face).
The formation of hematomas extends, and sometimes doubles the surgery time, increasing the time of permanence in the hospital, burdening the patient and stressing the team, in addition to entailing costs in regard of various dressings and repeated surgical procedures, when cutaneous necrosis occurs. In these cases the hospital costs may increase to great extent.
The injuries incurred by the facial nerve cause the patient to postpone his or her return to normal activity, with correspondingly significant financial losses, depending on the patient's profession.
The device and method disclosed by the present invention are capable of remedying these disadvantages, particularly in the case of bleeding associated with facelift surgery procedures. With the use of the present invention there is obtained an improvement in the quality of the cutaneous cuts, less post-op edema, reduced surgery time, minimization of ecchymoses, prophylaxis of injuries to the facial nerve, and most of all, the post-op formation of hematomas is minimized.